Pile fabric and method of making same



J. J. REPP 2,306,405

PILE FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME Dec. 29, 1942.

Fi-led May 9, 1941 FIGB:

INVENTOR JOHN J. REPjfD Patented Dec. 29, 1942 PILE FABRIC AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME John J. Repp, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to Collins & Aikman Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Delaware Application May 9, 1941, Serial No. 392,615

7 Claims. (Cl. 139-397) This invention relates to 4a method of weaving novel pile fabrics which have a pattern and plain field area, the pattern area of whichis formed from the inclination of both legs of -pile tufts secured to a regularly and uniformly woven backing fabric consisting of a set of slack warps, a set of tight warps and weft threads which are successively inserted over and under all of the tight warps.

The slack warps weave oppositely to the tight warps at all times and are formed by a simple shedding mechanism and without resort to complicated jacquards or dobby mechanisms.

It is to be understood that my tight warps are not extra-warps but that they are necessary for the formation of my ground fabric and serve with the wefts to determine the erectness or inclination of the legs of the pile tufts.

According to my improvements the pile tufts which form the pattern area have both legs inclined and when the fabric is viewed face up these tufts pass over a weft which is below the tight warps and under two wefts above the tight warps. The pattern forming pile warps are shed with the tight warps and the field forming tufts are shed with the slack warps. In the finished fabric the pattern forming tufts are said to weave with the tight warps. It will thus be seen that I can effect a wide range of effects and patterns -by the judicious manipulation of the pile warps and that is done without resorting to complicated ground weaves which necessitate selective .control of the backing warps and strains which reduce weaving efficiency and increase breakage.

An object of my invention is to provide a cut pile fabric having a backing comprising wefts in two planes and pile tufts some of which pass over a weft in the lower plane and under two wefts in the upper plane and others in the same warpwise row being under two wefts in the lower plane, the alternate wefts cf the backing being either over or under all of the tight backing warps and secured thereto only ,by slack backing warps which weave oppositely to the tight backing warps.

Another object is to provide a method of weaving two of such fabrics simultaneously.

Another object is to provide a cut pile fabric in which both of the legs of the predetermined tufts are inclined and in'which the weave is such that the patterns so formed donot interfere with the relationship or spacing of regularly formed tufts of the same fabric.

These and other objects of invention will be manifest from a consideration of the followingv description, claims and drawing, in which:

Figure I is a diagrammatic view of a preferred embodiment of my improved fabric showing three warpwise rows of tufts.

Figure II illustrates the threads which pass through a reed dent and the simultaneous weaving of two fabrics according to my improvements, the weaving being the same as in the middle row of tufts in Figure I.

Referring to Figure I of the drawing wherein the threadsare widely spaced to better show the interlacings, the wefts I, 2, 3, 4, la, 2a, 3a, 4a, Ib, 2b, 3b, 4b, lc, 2c, 3c, 4c, Id, 2d and 3d are alternately positioned above and below tight warps -5 and are secured in position by slack warps 6 which weave oppositely to the tight warps 5 to form a regular and simple backing or ground fabric. Theodd numbered wefts are below all of the tight warps and the even numbered wefts above them.

In Figure I the top and bottom rows of tufts 1 are shown as'spaced or offset two picks from the middle row and it will be noted that both legs of some of the tufts are inclined. None of the legs of the tufts of the bottom row is inclined and together with the tufts to the right in the upper two rows may constitute a portion of the plain field area. The middle row of tufts in order from left to right show interlacings which cause both legs of the first tuft to be erect. Both legs of the second and third tufts are inclined and both legs of the fourth and fifth tufts are erect. V'I'he middle row of tufts (Figure I) illustrates the transition from the inclined weave to the regular field weave prior to such transition in the upper row. Next adjacent pile tufts in a single vrow are preferably formed from two different pile yarns and are slightly offset from each other with the result that the effect of the inclined legs on adjacent erect legs will be relatively small.

As will be seen from the figures, the relative interlacing of the backing and pile is based on a four pick repeat concept in which both legs of each tuft (bottom row Figure I) -are supported' in a substantially erect position by a weft above the tight warps. These supporting wefts do not interlace with the tufts which they support ybut may interlace with tufts of next adjacent rows.

Figure II illustrates a preferred manner of weaving in the middle row of tufts and the wefts of Figure I. Pairs of wefts I, 2, 3, 4, la, 2a, 3a, 4a, Ib, 2b, 3b, 4b, Ic, 2c, 3c, 4c, Id, 2d and 3d are alternately over and under the tight warps 5 when the fabrics cut apart are face up. Tight warps 5 together with slack warps 6 are shed to provide for the simultaneous insertion of a pair of wefts such as 4d. It is to be noted that the wefts 4d support the last-formed leg of the lastformed pile tuft in an erect position.

It will be seen (Figure II) that the backing is perfectly regular and that from left to right the legs of thefirst, fourth and fifth tufts will be erect and the legs of the second and third tufts will be inclined.

According to my improvements two fabrics can be woven simultaneously in a relatively simple manner and opposite movement of the sets of tight and slack warps in shedding for weft insertion is uniform throughout the fabric, regardless of the inclination or erectness of the pile tufts. This feature is a distinct advantage as it is impractical to subject the tight warps to jacquard or pattern shedding.

The pile tufts which have erect legs weave with the slack warps and the pile tufts which have inclined legs weave oppositely to the slack warps or with the tight warps. v

As my concept is based on a four pick repeat, it will be seen that in any Warpwise row of pile tufts the transition of pile tufts having erect legs to pile tufts having inclined legs and back may be made without losing the two pick spacing which is desirable for uniformity in the plain or field area.

It is to be noted that in Figure I the pile tufts having erect legs and which are in next `adjacent rows maintain their staggered relationship as they change from tufts having erect legs to tufts having inclined legs and back again.

Having described my invention in a preferred embodiment, I claim:

l. In a cut pile woven fabric having a plain and a design area, said design area being formed from pile tufts having inclined legs, the combination of a backing fabric which is regular and uniform throughout and which consists of a set of tight warps, a set of oppositely woven slack warps and a set of weft threads, some of the number of weft threads being over all of the tight warps and others of the weft threads being under all of the tight warps, those wefts over the tight warps individually alternating with those wefts under the tight warps to lie in two planes, warpwise rows of pile tufts, at least one row of which contains a pile tuft formed from a pile yarn which weaves with the slack warp and under two wefts below the tight warps in forming an erect W tuft, and a pile tuft formed from a pile yarn which weaves oppositely to the slack warps and under two wefts above the tight warps to form-inclined tuft legs, whereby pile tufts having erect legs and pile tufts having both legs inclined are in the same warpwise row.

2. In a pile fabric in accordance with claim 1, further characterized in that where the pile tufts having erect legs are the next adjacent tufts of next adjacentV rows they are staggered two picks.

3. In a cut pile woven fabric having plain areas `and design areas, said design areas being formed from pile tufts having'both legs inclined, the combination of a backing fabric which consists of a set of tight warps, a set of oppositely woven slack warps and a set of weft threads secured in position by the two sets of warps, some of the number of weft threads being over all of the tight warps and the others of the weft threads being under all of the tight warps, those wefts over the tight warps individually alternating with those under the tight warps to lie in two different planes, warpwise rows of pile tufts secured to the backing, some of the tufts in a row each passing under next adjacent wefts which are below the tight warps and over the intermediate weft over the tight warps to form plain areas of W pile tufts, and the others of the tufts each in the same warpwise row passing under next adjacent wefts above the tight warps and over the intermediate weft below the tight warps to form inclined tufts, all being considered when the fabric is face up.

' 4. In a cut pile woven fabric having plain areas and design areas, said design areas being formed from pile tufts having both legs inclined, the combination of a backing fabric which consists of tight and slack warp threads regularly arranged across the fabric, all of said tight warps being woven together and oppositely woven to all of the slack warps, a series of weft threads secured in position by the tight and slack warps, some of the number of weft threadsin said series being over all of the tight warps and the others of the weft therads being under all of the tight warps, those wefts over the tight warps individually alternating with those under the tight warps to lie in two different planes, warpwise rows of pile tufts secured to the backing, some of the tufts in a row passing under next adjacent wefts which are below the tight warps and over the intermediate weft over the tight warps to form erect pile, and others of the tufts in the same Warpwise row passing under next adjacent wefts above the tight warps and over the intermediate weft which is below the tight warp to form inclined pile, all being considered when the fabric is face up.

5. In a double pile fabric which is to be cut apart to form two cut pile fabrics, the combination of two backing fabrics, each cf iviu'ch consists of a set of tight warps, a set of oppositely woven slack warps and weft threads secured in position by the two sets of warps, some of the numbers of wefts in each backing being over all of the tight warps and the others of the weft threads of each backing being underall of the tight warps, those wefts over the tight warps in each backing individually alternating with those under the tight warps to lie in two different planes, a pair of interconnecting pile forming yarns which interlace with both backing fabrics symmetrically to each other, said interconnecting pair of pile forming yarns being interlaced with each backing so that when the fabric is cut apart and face up they form a warpwise row of pile tufts in each fabric, some of the tufts in a row passing under next adjacent wefts below the tight warps and over the intermediate weft above the tight warps, and others of the tufts of the same warpwise row passing under next adjacent weft thread above the tight warps and over the intermediate weft below the tight warps to form inclined pile, all being considered when the fabric is face up.

6. In a process of double weaving, the steps which consist in providing two sets of tight warps and two sets of slack warps, shedding the sets of slack warps oppositely to the sets of tight warps at all times, forming two backings by simultaneously inserting one each of pairs of wefts in. the successive pairs of warp threads so that succeeding wefts of each backing lie in different planes, interconnecting the two backing fabrics concurrently with the weaving of the backings with pile forming yarns which form rows of tufts, at least some of such rows containing tufts having both legs inclined and other tufts having both legs erect, said tufts having both legs erect being ln the form of a W and each passing under next adjacent wefts below the tight warps and over the intermediate weft above the tight warps, and said tufts having both legs inclined each passing under next adjacent weft threads above the tight Warps and above the intermediate thread below the tight warps, all being considered when the fabric is cut apart and face up.

7. In a process of double weaving, the steps which consist in providing two sets of tight warps and two sets of slack warps, shedding the sets of slack warps oppositely to the sets of tight warps at all times, forming two backing fabrics by simultaneously inserting one each of pairs of wefts in the successive pairs of warp sheds so that the succeeding wefts of each backing lie in different planes, interconnecting the two backing 3;." fabrics concurrently with the weaving of the backings with pile forming yarns which form rows of tufts, at least some of such rows containing tufts having both legs inclined and other tufts having both legs erect, said interconnection being eiected by selectively shedding the pile forming yarns with the slack warps of one backing fabric during three successive sheds of that backing to form ya W tuft in said backing, and shedding the pile forming yarn oppositely to the slack warps of the other backing for three other successive sheds to form a tuft which passes under two next adjacent weft threads above the tight warps and above the intermediate weft thread below the tight warps, all being considered when below refers to the back side of the fabric.

JOHN J. REPP. 

